ROYCE Simmons thought Saints showed glimpses of how he wants them to play during their 56-22 win over Salford on Friday night.
His charges ran in seven first half tries to hand the City Reds their second loss of the new season.
“I was pleased in parts with the performance,” he said. “We build a comfortable lead and then went away from a few things. When you are ahead you tend to want to move the ball to one side and another instead of going forward and we did that a bit in the second half.
“A few times we made clear breaks and instead of just going for it, we waited for support. The support has to get to you so we will have to work on that a bit too.
“I was really happy with the second 20 minutes before half time as we started to do the sort of things we wanted to do and play. That part of the game was good.
“But I am a little disappointed they ran in 22 points; we set goals and targets at the beginning of the season and that is too many for us.”
Because of injuries to Paul Wellens, James Graham and Leon Pryce, Saints made a number of changes which included Lee Gaskell’s second full start in Super League and places for Shaun Magennis and Tommy Makinson.
Royce said: “I thought the youngsters did well and brought a lot of energy to the side which is what I asked them to do.
“Lee hasn’t played much, probably about 15 minutes this season before he hurt his foot, but I felt as the game went on he got better. It was a good effort from him to play the full 80 minutes.
“Magennis hasn’t done much training either and I thought he pulled off a couple of good aggressive tackles.
“I thought Kyle Eastmond also showed glimpses of some form. He took the line on a bit more as the game went on and he will get better.
“I know there is a lot of speculation around Kyle at the moment. As I have said in press this week we want to keep him here. He has great qualities and we have done everything we can. If he decides to go [to Union] then we will get on with life and bring someone through or perhaps chase another half. Of course we want it sorted out for everyone’s concern and hope it is shortly.”
